All the days ever after.

My lifelong best friend is engaged!

I honored her on my blog once before,

but once isn't enough.

When I found out she was engaged, I was so excited 

that I cried.

And then, in her honor,

I ate cereal out of a mug.

That's what she'd do at a time like that.

Of course I was thrown into nostalgia.

Because when you're a little kid,

and you have a friend who always wants to be the dog

when you play pretend,

who can draw better than any kid your age should be able to,

who rocks the 90s with a bowl cut,

and when you're older

and you've got a friend who teaches you what ravenous means,

who reads The Outsiders in one day,

whose French name is Fabienne,

who has a Chris Brown birthday cake,

who's the classiest girl at Prom,

who goes to college with you,

and always does the dishes,

and is the only girl on BYU campus to wear Timbs,

you don't know how life is going to turn out 

for this wonderful girl.

The day that the smartest guy in the world 

will propose to her

seems so far in the future.

But one day you wake up and that day is here.

And you realize,

that guy will be by her side for the rest of her life

and their children will be beautiful

and lucky.

This is what loving someone for her whole life

is like.

Angels round about you

I recently spent seven days in a row with a bunch of angels.

We made it through a tsunami

and ended up at a bar.

We learned what it means to be a diva.

We went to Dragon Land and back.

We shot the sheriff, rode mustangs,

and got thrown in jail.

We saved Metro City.

We ate free pie and rode round roundabouts

again and again

while talk in "Russian accent."

So many good day--

in the plural.

Two most attractive apartments in the world.
Minus Katie & Ian.

There were giants in the earth.

Over Christmas, I read a book.

Really, this is noteworthy for me.

I haven't finished a book since 2011

(besides the Book of Mormon of course).

I picked a title off my reading list for my

"Cultural History of Scandinavia" class 

that I have this semester:

Giants in the Earth by Ole Rolvaag,

a book about Norwegian settlers in the Dakota territory.

I made myself read a little every day,

and soon I loved it.

There was something boring about it,

in a pleasant, intimate way of daily life.

I love those characters

who pushed west to the sunset,

creating their own fairy tale:

Per Hansa

Beret

Sorrine & Hans Olsa

little Peder Victorious

From here

I loved them so much that sometimes I got mad at them.

And in the end,

the harsh blizzard took two of their lives,

the vindictive winter "that drank the blood of Christian men

and was satisfied."

I cried on the airplane while I finished the book,

and when I looked out the airplane window,

there was the snow covered prairie,

the very same that murdered my friends.

And I was mad at the land below me as I cried.

And the fact that the book wasn't even real

meant nothing at all.

Nec minus salutaris quam festiuus.

I want to found a utopian society

where everyone speaks Latin.

Miserable.

Well, it happened.

I'm obsessed with Les Miserables.

I was dead set against it.

But this is what I wrote my sister:

"I realized that I have resisted Les Miserables

because I feel like EVERYONE likes it.

And you know how I feel about musicals.

And I feel like people who like it

tend to think they're somethin special.

But I watched the trailer,

and I started tearing up when I saw the dirty French children

running through the streets.

How could I NOT love it?

I mean, I love France,

and revolutions,

and the common man fighting for his place in the world.

I need to be more humble."

And I saw the movie,

and those French revolutionaries did me right in.

Not to mention the themes of sacrifice,

redemption,

justice and mercy,

and love.

Lesson in humility.

There's no going back.